My Blog

 

This week I spent a couple of days in Hull, no it wasn't a jolly, it was related to work. I haven't been to Hull since 1989 and my memories were of a bleak and cold city. On Tuesday and Wednesday it was almost tropical, the hottest day for three years and temperatures of 33 degrees according to my car. The hotel I stayed in only had air conditioning in the bar . . . . . hmmmm!

The reason that I went to Hull was because I was asked (and they were paying travel, accommodation and food) to present to the Local Authority as well as Primary and Secondary Heads regarding the new OfSTED process. Two other Heads attended from Suffolk and we had all been through the OfSTED pilot inspections last term.

The new process is probably the best OfSTED inspection that I have ever been through and it was my fifth. You may find this rather difficult to believe as we were the first secondary school in the country to have a no notice inspection and we ended up in special measures but the process was much better.

As a headteacher I found that I was fully involved in the process at all levels including the decision making and debate. The emphasis is on pupil progress rather than the quality of teaching with much more lesson observations. It was initially data driven but they were honest enough to state this from the start with the lead inspector stating that "after considering your data, we have a hypothesis that this is a failing school. We have two days to either prove or disprove it."

As for the no notice inspection, I thought that it was a good idea, it was a realistic view of what actually happens on a day to day basis. I have heard people say that they have an "OfSTED lesson", the thought that it is acceptable to deliver one good lesson every three years when OfSTED come shocks me. Having two days notice to polish that lesson is even more unrealistic. The only down side is that we have been compared to schools that did have two days notice and that is unfair. I would be happy for all inspections to be no notice, at least then it would be a level playing field.

I hope that our colleagues in Hull found the information to be useful.